TITYOS (or Tityus) was a Phokian giant who assaulted the goddess Leto as she was on her way to Delphoi. Her son Apollon came to the rescue and despatched the giant with his arrows and golden sword.

As further punishment for the crime, Tityos was condemned to eternal torment in the underworld. There he was staked to the ground and two vultures set to feed on his ever regenerating liver.

His name might be derived from the Greek word tisis, meaning "he who suffers retribution." Alternatively Tityos may be connected with the Tityroi, a Boiotian name for flute-playing satyrs. In this guise he resembles another of Apollon's opponents, Marsyas. Certain elements of his story also closely resemble those of the Boiotian giant Orion and the Titan Prometheus.

Homer, Odyssey 7. 324 (trans. Shewring) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"[The King of the Phaiakes (Phaeacians) speaks:] That [the Greek island of Euboia] is the furthest point of all--so say those of our people who once set eyes on it when they carried yellow-haired Rhadamanthys to visit Tityos (Tityus) son of Gaia (Earth)."

Homer, Odyssey 11. 576 :
"[Odysseus describes of the shades of the dead he saw in the underworld:] I saw Tityos (Tityus) also, son of the mighty goddess Gaia (Earth); he lay on the ground, his bulk stretched out over nine roods (plethra). Two vultures, one on each side of him, sat and kept plucking at his liver, reaching down to the very bowels; he could not beat them off with his hands. And this was because he had once assaulted a mistress of Zeus himself, the far-famed Leto, as she walked towards Pytho through the lovely spaces of Panopeus."
[N.B. The Greek plethron is a length of approximately 30 meters or 100 feet. So this nine plethra giant was 270 meters or 900 feet tall.]

Pindar, Pythian Ode 4 ep 4 :
"Indeed Tityos by Artemis was hunted down with darts from her unconquerable quiver suddenly sped, so that a man may learn to touch only those loves that are within his power."

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 22 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Tityos (Tityus) son of Zeus and Okrhomenos' (Orchomenus') daughter Elare. After Zeus had seduced Elare, in fear of Hera he hid her beneath the earth, where she gave birth to their enormous son Tityos, and led him forth into the light of day.Tityos saw Leto when she came to Pytho and in a fit of passion tried to embrace her. But she called out to her children, who shot him dead with arrows. He is being punished even in death, for vultures feast on his heart in Hades' realm."

Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1. 758 ff (trans. Rieu) (Greek epic C3rd B.C.) :
"[Embroidered on the mantle of Iason (Jason) crafted by Athene:] And here was Phoibos Apollon, pictured as a sturdy youth shooting an arrow at the gigantic Tityos, who was boldly dragging off his mother Leto by her veil. Tityos was lady Elare' son; but he was nursed and born by Mother Gaia (Earth)."

Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 3. 390 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic C4th A.D.) :
"As lay Tityos (Tityus), who sought to force Queen Leto, when she fared to Pytho: swiftly in his wrath Apollon shot, and laid him low, who seemed invincible: in a foul lake of gore there lay he, covering many a rood of ground, on the broad earth, his mother; and she moaned over her son, of blessed Gods abhorred; but Lady Leto laughed."

Strabo, Geography 9. 3. 12 (trans. Jones) (Greek geographer C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"Apollon, visiting the land [of Phokis], civilized the people by introducing cultivated fruits and cultured modes of life . . . when he arrived at the land of the Panopaians he destroyed Tityos, a violent and lawless man who ruled there; and that the Parnassians joined him and informed him of another cruel man named Python and known as the Drakon (Dragon)."

Strabo, Geography 9. 3. 14 :
"Panopeios [in Phokis], the Phanoteios of today . . . the scene of the myth of Tityos (Tityus) is laid here. Homer says that the Phaiakes (Phaeacians) led Rhadamanthys into Euboia to see Tityos, son of Ge (the Earth).’ And a cave called Elarion is to be seen in the island [of Euboia], named after Elara the mother of Tityos; and also a hero-temple of Tityos, and certain honors which are paid to him."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 10. 11. 1 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"The Knidians (Cnidians) brought the following images to Delphoi: . . . Leto, and Apollon and Artemis shooting arrows at Tityos, who has already been wounded in the body."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 18. 15 :
"[Depicted on the throne of the Amyklaian at Amyklai near Sparta:] . . . Apollon and Artemis are shooting Tityos."

Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 55 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Because Latona [Leto] had lain with Jove [Zeus], Juno [Hera] ordered Tityus, a creature of immense size, to offer violence to her. When he tried to do this he was slain by the thunderbolt of Jove. He is said to lie stretched out over nine acres in the Land of the Dead, and a serpent is put near him to eat out his liver, which grows again with the new moon."

Ovid, Metamorphoses 4. 453 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"The [Erinyes sits] guarding the dungeon's adamantine doors, and combed the black snakes hanging in their hair . . . ‘The Dungeon of the Damned’ that place is called. There giant Tityos lies stretched across nine acres and provides his vitals for the vultures.'"

Virgil, Aeneid 6. 595 ff (trans. Day-Lewis) (Roman epic C1st B.C.) :
"Tityos too, the nursling of Tellus [Gaia the Earth] who mothers all, was to be seen [in Tartaros], his body pegged out over a full nine acres, a huge vulture with hooked beak gnawing for ever his inexhaustible liver, the guts that are rich in torment, pecking away for its food, burrowing deep through the body it lives in, and giving no rest to the always-replenishing vitals."

Propertius, Elegies 3. 5 :
"Whether in the world below exist assizes of gods and punishments of sinners, the wheel, the rolling rock, the thirst in the water's midst . . . and nine acres are all too few for Tityus."

Statius, Thebaid 6. 751 :
"This one [a competitor in wrestling] is as great in broad expanse of every limb and terrible in size of bone as though Tityos should rise up from thte Stygian fields, did the fierce birds allow him."

Statius, Thebaid 11. 12 :
"As vast as in Avernus lies outstretched the defiler [Tityos] of Apollo's mother [Leto], whom even the birds held aghast when they emerge from his cavernous breast and view his huge extended limbs, while the wretched fibres grow again to feed them."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 20. 35 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"In Olympos I shrink from Leto, still a proud braggart, when she holds up at me the arrow that defended her bed and slew Tityos the lustful giant."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 4. 331 ff :
"The city of Tityos [in Phokis], where that bold son of Gaia (Earth) marching through the fair-leafy woods of Panopeus lifted the sacred robe of Leto and attempted violence."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 48. 395 :
"[Nemesis, the goddess of just retribution, addresses Artemis:] ‘What impious son of Earth persecutes you? . . . Has Tityos risen again rolling a lovemad eye, and touched the robe of your untouchable mother [Leto]? Where is your bow, Artemis, where are Apollon's arrows?’"